Image: Portuguese Navy
A cargo ship carrying thousands of vehicles across the Atlantic Ocean has sunk, according to the company that operated the ship (via Insider). A fire broke out on the ship, Felicity Ace, on February 16th as it was traveling from Germany to the USA.
Nearly 4,000 cars from the Volkswagen Group were being transported to the USA, the company confirmed to Insider. Felicity Ace was carrying both electric and non-electric vehicles, according to the Associated Press, and reports from February indicated Porsches, Bentleys, Lamborghinis, and other luxury cars were among those on board. While it’s unclear exactly what started the blaze, captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas said lithium-ion batteries in EVs aboard the ship caught fire, Reuters reported in February.
Felicity Ace operator MOL Ship Management Singapore says the ship sunk at 9AM local time around 220 nautical miles (about 253 miles) off the coast of the Azores, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic that’s an autonomous region of Portugal. All 22 crew members were evacuated from the ship and did not need medical attention, the Portuguese Navy said when the fire first broke out.
On Friday, a salvage team was able to board the ship, and “the smoke leaving the vessel has currently stopped and is not visible,” MOL Ship Management Singapore said. The ship was being towed when it sank, according to The Wall Street Journal.